Tonight the Booklyn Artists Alliance (note no r) will be holding a shindig at Spike Hill:

featuring an exciting auction of fabulous eccentric artworks, readings, music, giveaways, and general good times to celebrate Booklyn artists and the completion of the cataloging of the First Booklyn Decade Archive.

It’s free, and there may actually be literate members of the opposite sex.

186 Bedford Ave, 7-10pm

Unless you have a review copy or grabbed the leak on Amazon you’re going to have to wait until Tuesday to read the new Jonathan Franzen. Thankfully, The New Yorker has a sneak peak of the first two chapters.

If you’re jealous of President Obama for getting his hands on an advance copy of Jonathan Franzen’s new novel “Freedom,” don’t fret: versions of the book’s first two chapters, originally published in the June 8, 2009, and May 31, 2010, issues of the magazine, are available on our Web site. Read “Good Neighbors” and “Agreeable” while you wait—patiently or impatiently—for the book to go on sale Tuesday.

This Saturday at Enid’s:

Books Through Bars moved, and we’re having a party to get us back on

our feet! It features awesome librarians and excellent music, so

you’d best be there.

The Desk Set (a group of young librarians who throw dope parties to

raise money for organizations promoting literacy) are hosting a party

at Enid’s in Williamsburg to pay for the postage we need to get back

to sending books to people incarcerated all across America.

After our old space was damaged by fire, Books Through Bars moved to

our new home in Freebird Bookstore, and we’ve built up a big backlog

of packages that need sending and letters that need replies. 100% of

contributions go to either postage or packing supplies, but we’re a

bit behind and need plenty of help.

So, now you know what your Saturday holds: dancing, drinks and librarians.

Books Through Bars benefit with The Desk Set @ Enid’s, 560 Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg

10pm and on. Suggested Donation at the door.

I was already sitting at my computer on Monday when I “sat down” with Tao Lin (blog, twitter), author of the recently released Shoplifting From American Apparel, to have a little gchat about being fucked, Dan Brown’s new book, and his new life as an internet t-shirt model.

I volunteered that we’d keep this interview embargoed until next week sometime, but am posting it now so the New York Times will see they’re not the only ones breaking those things these days.

Here, have a look at what we talked about!

An Interview with Tao Lin, author of Shoplifting From American Apparel

me: hello

tao: hi

me: shall we chat?

tao: yes

(No, that’s not it! There’s more! After the jump…)

(more…)

From AP
Author Saul Bellow dies
image c/o Dmitri Kasterine

Saul Bellow, the Nobel Prize-winning author of “Herzog,” “Humboldt’s Gift” and other essential tales of memory, chaos and the sensitive soul in 20th century America, died Tuesday. He was 89.
Bellow’s close friend and attorney, Walter Pozen, said the writer had been in declining health. Pozen said Bellow’s wife, Janis, and daughter, Naomi, were at his side when he died at his home in Brookline, Mass.
Few writers have been so honored in their time. He won three National Book Awards: in 1954 for “The Adventures of Augie March,” in 1965 for “Herzog” and in 1971 for “Mr. Sammler’s Planet.” In 1976, he won the Pulitzer Prize for “Humboldt’s Gift.” That same year Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize, cited for his “human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture.”
In 2003, the Library of America paid the rare tribute of releasing work by a living writer, issuing a volume of Bellow’s early novels.
“The backbone of 20th-century American literature has been provided by two novelists — William Faulkner and Saul Bellow,” Philip Roth said in a statement Tuesday. “Together they are the Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th century.”
Bellow was the most acclaimed of a generation of Jewish writers who emerged after World War II, among them Roth and Bernard Malamud, leading Bellow to joke that he and his two peers were the “Hart, Schaffner & Marx” of literature. To American letters, he brought the immigrant’s hustle, the bookworm’s brains and the high-minded notions of the born romantic.